If you haven’t been using IGTV for business purposes, don’t miss out any longer! Keep reading to learn more about why and how to use it. 

What is IGTV?

Everyone knows about Instagram, but are you aware that you can use Instagram for your business? This popular social media platform has become even more effective for marketing your products and services, thanks to the recent launch of IGTV.

IGTV allows users to publish long videos, which can be used to engage customers.  These videos are vertical and don’t require turning the phone to view them in full screen, making the IGTV app mobile-friendly. 

Benefits of IGTV for Business

Here are some convincing reasons for adding IGTV to your digital marketing plan:

• Increases Visibility – The key to success is making your target market aware of your product or service.  IGTV can help.  Publishing videos enables you to reach more potential customers, making them aware of your brand’s existence.
• Educates – IGTV gives you the opportunity to provide instructional videos and tutorials that teach your customers how to use your products.
• Increases Engagement Rates- Producing content that is entertaining, useful, and creative results in likes, comments, and shares.
• Builds Relationships – Creating videos and encouraging engagement allows you to connect with your audience, which will help convince them to purchase your product or service.       

How to Use IGTV for Business

Here are some great ideas for how to use IGTV for business purposes.

Use Content from an Old Video 

Got some old videos on Facebook or YouTube? Make them IGTV worthy by changing their orientation to vertical and adding any necessary updates.

Once published, keep track of which videos are most successful.  The content that makes the most positive impact on your business is the type of content you should keep creating for future videos.

Turn Blog Posts into IGTV Videos

You can also look at old blog posts for inspiration.  Pick out your most popular posts and recreate the content in video form.  Remember to monitor the success rate of each video so that you can learn which type of content your audience loves. 

Target a Niche

It’s easier to please a smaller group of people than to appeal to the masses. By providing content that meets the specific needs of a specific niche, you will gain the trust and loyalty of that niche. Then, while using IGTV for business is essential to focus on a specific topic related to your profile content in order to attract more public.

Show Off Your Products      

You don’t need to promote your products in every video, but you definitely want to talk about them in some videos. Show off your products’ best features, provide examples of how to use them, and describe how they benefit customers. IGTV for business is an important tool to provide more details to your customers, it could be details about a product or something that you want to say. 

Practical Product Information

If your product requires assembly, customers will really appreciate a video showing them how to put it together. You can also give them some great ideas for how to use your product in ways they might not think of.

Post Consistently

Whether you create videos on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, pick a schedule and stick to it.  That way, your audience will know when to expect another video and will keep coming back for more.

Answer Questions

Give your audience the opportunity to ask questions and then answer them in your next video.  This makes your viewers feel more connected to you, increases their trust in your brand, and makes them more reliant on your expertise.

You can use the questions sticker in Instagram Stories to collect questions for the video.  Alternatively, you can post an FAQ video answering some of the most common questions you receive on a day-to-day basis.

Honor Your Best Customers

Make your most committed customers feel special by featuring them in an IGTV video.  Give these loyal customers the opportunity to explain why they chose your product or service. This will keep them committed to your brand, while also encouraging new customers to purchase your product or service.

Allow Customers to Join the Fun

When your business participates in a special event, get it on video and upload it to IGTV.  The events you share with customers can include:

• Awards ceremonies;
• Conferences;
• Exhibitions;
• Publicity events;
• And more! 

This allows your audience to feel part of your business, which will strengthen their connection to your brand.

Be Transparent

Show your audience what goes on during product production, day-to-day operations, and anything else that happens in your business.  They will gain a better understanding of what you do, which will increase their interest in your work.

Best IGTV Practices

Learn how to upload videos at the Instagram Help Center.  In addition to following those steps, you will also want to keep the tips listed below in mind. 

Find the Right Video Length

This will require a bit of trial and error.  So far, there aren’t any general recommendations for the best video length.  When getting started, make each video a different length and keep track of which one gets the most views and likes. 

Once you’ve figured out which videos perform the best, your future videos should be roughly the same length.

Use Cross-Promotion Tactics

Let people know about your IGTV videos by announcing them on Instagram Stories, Facebook, and any other platforms your business is on.  This is an effective method to quickly increase your video’s views and engagement rates.

You can also post videos on YouTube informing viewers that you will be posting new and repurposed content in vertical format on IGTV. 

Even if your subscribers on YouTube have already seen the videos you repurpose for IGTV, they might still be interested in seeing those videos vertically, especially if they frequently refer to the information in those videos on their phones. 

Optimize

Although much remains uncertain about IGTV’s algorithm, there are still some guidelines that you should follow for optimizing your video and increasing its chances of being seen. 

Here are some tips:

• Create attention-grabbing titles for your videos.
• Include keywords in your title.
• Add hashtags to your video descriptions.
• Limit your title’s character count to 18-20.
• Add relevant keywords to your video descriptions.
• Add links to your video descriptions that direct traffic to your website or landing page. 

Monitor Engagement Metrics

You should keep track of your performance on IGTV.  Select “View Insights” from the IGTV menu to analyze important metrics that reveal your level of success.  Use this information to help you discover what’s working, what isn’t, and what strategies need to be adjusted.

IGTV for business can be an incredibly effective tactic for increasing your reach and gaining new customers.  But if you are just starting out on IGTV it can be hard to get established. 

Not to worry!  We can help.  Jumpstart your IGTV success by increasing your view count and likes.